Contact:
Katie Farnan
720-404-2502
katie@thebighorncompany.com
Denver, CO — The Electronic Payments Coalition (EPC) today again urged Governor Jared Polis to veto recently passed interchange legislation in Colorado following a major federal court action involving a similar law in Illinois.
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today vacated a decision by a lower court in ongoing litigation over Illinois’s interchange law. The appeals court sent the case back to the district court with instructions citing recent actions by the nation’s top federal banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to reinforce that state banking laws related to interchange are preempted by the National Banking Act.
“Governor Polis can prevent Colorado from experiencing the same card chaos currently happening in Illinois by vetoing the deeply flawed, unworkable and federally preempted legislation pushed through the state’s General Assembly by corporate mega-stores,” said Electronic Payments Coalition Executive Chairman Richard Hunt. “In Illinois, the Court of Appeals rightly recognized what the top federal banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, has said from the beginning: states cannot impose commerce-disrupting requirements on the national payments system.
“These state interchange laws are unworkable, disruptive, economically damaging and a recipe for confusion for consumers, small businesses, community banks, and credit unions.”
The Colorado interchange legislation was strongly opposed by a broad coalition of financial institutions, labor organizations, small businesses and community advocates who warned the measure could create significant disruption across the state’s economy and tourism industry.
The Seventh Circuit’s docket order noted, “After the district court entered its decision in this case, the Comptroller of the Currency issued an Interim Final Rule … and an order, ‘Order Preempting the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act’ … The district court should address these matters, and any related issues, before this court attempts to do so. We therefore vacate the judgment of the district court.”
For additional information, please visit GuardYourCard.com/Colorado.
